Costly SA BITC mansion to be sold

Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Bogolo Kenewendo, this week told parliament that a P3 Million Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) mansion in South Africa that has been vacant since 2015 is up for sale.

The mansion which is housed in Edenburg/Rivonia is a fully furnished residential property which was meant to house BITC’s regional representative.

The house was acquired by BITC back in 2018 and, according to the minister, an extra ZAR 481, 513.72 was used to refurbish the property back in 2016. “Subsequent to refurbishing of the house and recommendation of management, the BITC board passed a resolution to put it on sale and find a replacement house for purposes of accommodating the regional representative,” she said.

The youthful minister further told Parliament that the decision to dispose of the house was based on the fact of security concerns and cost of maintenance.

“It is in this regard that the property has been vacant since August, 2015 to date. This period includes renovation time which was done in 2016,” she said.

The BITC regional representative currently resides in a rented apartment that costs BITC a whooping, P 335 154.82 per year.

“The board took the decision to sell the property to cut on maintenance costs and use proceeds from its sales to purchase a habitable house for the regional representative,” further stressed Kenewendo.

Kenewendo was answering a question posed by Selibe-Phikwe West MP, Dithapelo Keorapetse, who had quizzed the Ministry if their decision was prudent management of resources.